Genetic Programming

The book was very large but enjoyable and made the subject very clear and easy to understand. It explained the genetic programming algorithm very well and showed the results of many experiments to show applicability, limitations, and characteristics of the method.

There was some repetition in places, maybe because the author wanted to emphasize some points and also to remain understandable to persons who may read selected chapters or examples rather than from cover to cover, page by page.

Although the book states that Genetic Programming does not depend on the LISP language or features, it uses LISP as its exclusive language of choice. I would like to implement these generally very computationally intensive Genetic Programming Algorithms in a very fast and efficient way, which for me implies assembly language, and although the author gives good tips about making the algorithm run faster the implementation shown is all LISP and nothing else. I am also interested in using the algorithm to generate efficient, parsimonious, code. The author described the additional problems of parsimony, but gave no information on generation of fast code from S expressions. I will have to refer to some compiler books and my own experiments to go further in this area.

I look forward to experimenting with the subject and reading some of Dr. Koza's other books on the subject.

Other Reviews

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